Ager fob treating printed and like



June 6, 1939. z. SOCHOR ETAL 2,161,726

AGER FOR TREATING PRINTED AND LIKE FABRICS Filed Jan. 16, 19-37 2Sheets-Sheet l June 6, 1939. 2, SOCHOR ET AL AGER FOR TREATING PRINTEDAND LIKE FABRICS 2 shee ts s heet 2 Filed Jan. 16, 1937 ZDI/VIS /f 500/04/ 786?! finals/v1 5, Br a d; a flrf IVE) Patented'June 6,, 1939 vUNITED STATES PATENT orrlcr.

Zdenk Sochor and Alfred Kvasnika, Dvur Kralove n. L., Czechoslovakia,and Slava Moi-ch,

Rydbohohn, Sweden;

said Morch and said Kvasnicka assig-nors to said Sochor ApplicationJanuary 16, 1937, Serial No. 121,021 In Czechoslovakia, January 17, 19362 Claims.

This invention relates to agers for treating printed and like fabrics ordyed and printed fabrics. A dye, consisting of two or more components isapplied to the fabric on printing machines. The fabric'passes later onthrough a closed chamber with an atmosphere charged with gases orvapours at a certain temperature. Since the time of passing through thechamber is fixed, the velocity of the fabric has to be determinedaccordingly.

It is usual,to heat the atmosphere which is saturated or partiallysaturated with steam to a temperature of 90 to 105 C. while the fabricis passing through the ager, chemical change of the dye-components takeplace which then fix on the fibre simply by washing or oxidizing.

Some of the dyes for example the group of azo-dyes, commercially knownas rapidogens, need treatment in an acetic acid or formic acidatmosphere heated to a temperature of about 90 C. -Although these'dyeshave some properties, as colour fastness, for example, and although theyare moderate in price, their practical use is restricted owing to thefollowing reasons? The consumption of the acid is considerable becausethe known ager construction leads the chemical products and thevapourous ageing agents away through a chimney or outlet, which meansloss of acid.

The concentration of acid in the atmosphere of the ager is not alwaysthe same owing to the usual irregular way of replenishing the acideither by spraying or evaporating from one or more vessels placed in theager. It is impossible 'to use the desirable maximum acid concentrationbecause the increased consumption would make the whole processuneconomical. This reason and the inconsistency of the workingconditions necessitates the use of dyes of high concentration for theprinting which means increased production costs.

Another disadvantage nearly preventing the use of dyes which have to bedeveloped in vapours of organic acids is that the agers of usualconstruction have a short life, due to the chemical action of the acidatmosphere.

It is possible to develop the mentioned dye by a solution of acids butlosses of acid are in this case considerable. The dyes are not fullydeveloped and therefore more concentrated dyes have to be used. Thismeans again an increase in manufacturing costs.

The invention proposes an ager structure for the development andtreatment of printed fabrics,

especially suited to the use of organic acids at normal or increasedtemperature, for which a long life and the possibility to regulate or tostabilize the working conditions is assured and which achievesconsiderable saving of acid.

The drawings show an example of the ager according to the invention.Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section, Fig. 2 a cross section of the ager.

The printed fabric is led over the tension devices 2 and 3, over themouth of the ager 4, being heated by the pipe 5, through which indirectvapour passes and thence through the ager. The ager consists of twocompact parts lower part I and upper part 8, which are fastened to eachother by screws 9. Several rollers, lower l0 and upper Ii are placed inthe ager. These rollers can be made of rust resisting steel, syntheticresin and the like. ers pass through special stuffing boxes i2, locatedin the walls of the ager. The bearings 14 are outside the ageingchamber. The lower rollers are furnished with a drive IS, the upperrollers with a similar drive 16. All the bearings and drive are outsidethe ager. The ager can be equipped with a thermometer II. The lower partof the ager is furnished with an access opening I8, being normallyclosed by a door l9, curved or shaped to avoid horizontal surfacesinside the ager. The bottom of the lower compact part of the ager isused at the same time as a tank Shafts is of the roll- Y for thesolution 20, such as a solution of formic acid. The tank has an outlet.2| with a discharge pipe 22 and a discharge cook. The inflow of thesolution is guarded by a splash plate 23. The solution is led into theager through an inflow chamber 24. The solution in the ager is heated bysteam passing through a coil 25,

which is led to and from the ager through stufiing boxes 26. The roof ofthe ager 21 is considerably inclined and stiffened by ribs 28, andbetween the ribs, pipes 29 are led on the outside,

I and through these pipes steam circulates. Near the top part of theager there is an out-take 30 which does not communicate with atmospherebut discharges into a cqndenser, as for example a coil of piping 3| madefrom rust resisting steel or other acid resisting material. Thecondenser coil is placed in the tank 35, filled with a cooling fluid 32,being continually replenished by means of the inlet pipe 33 and theoutlet pipe 45. The condenser tank 35 is provided with a discharge cook36, the tank resting on the supporting construction 31. The acidvapours, condensed into a fluid, flow into the mixing vessel- 39, fromthere they return through the inlet pipe 40 to the ager over the inletchamber 24. The gases, which may develop during the working process inthe ager and not condensed in the condenser, escape through up-take pipe18, which is equipped with a valve. The measuring vessel 42 can befilled from a vessel 4| containing the acid supply through suitablepipes by the use of compressed air. The treated fabric comes outof theager through horizontal mouth 4,' passes over the measuring rollers 43and is led away in the direction of the arrow 44.

The fabric is, for the entire time during its passage through the agerunder the influence of the vapours of the liquid, which covers the bottom of the ager and isheated by the heating coil. As a result of theintensive cooling in the condenser a condensation of the evaporatedliquid takes place. The condensed vapours return into the lower mixingvessel 39 and from there into the ager. The parts of the coil, formerlyfilled with vapours nowcondensed, get again filled with vapours from theager.

The acid vapours keep constantly circulating. During the process a partof the acid is consumed and has to be replenished from the acid storage.The pipe, connecting the coil with the ager, is also connected with achimney through which gases developing during the chemical processes mayescape. The inner walls of the ager are smooth, and all protruding partsand horizontal surfaces on which the vapours might condense are avoided.This arrangement prevents as far as possible drops of fluid falling on rthe fabric, which might damage it. The ager according to the inventionhas the following ad vantages:

Losses of the acid vapours or other chemical agents are very small. Thevapours of the acid are condensed, evaporated again and they have to bereplenished only to that extent in which they ings and drives outsidethe ager and by fabricat ing it from only two parts with the minimumamount of connections, a long life is assured for the ager.

The indirect heating and the inclined roof and the curved outline of theopenings prevent drops of fluid falling on the fabric.

The whole bottom of the ager serves as acid container which gives a bigsurface for evaporation. The heating of acid with indirect steam can bemade very intensive. These two circumstances create a stability of theworking conditions.

It is possible to use less concentrated dyes for a certain, colour tint.The consumption of acid is much smaller than it was usual till now,while the concentration of the acid in the ager is much higher. At thesame time the ager has a longer life on account of its specialconstruction and on account of the suitable material ,itis made from.His possible to get a certain production from a smaller sized ager thanusual. 'There is no possibility for drops of fluid to fall on thefabric, damage to the fabric is therefore prevented.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our saidinvention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare thatwhat we claim is:

1. In an aging apparatus, an oxidizing chamber having a combined fabricentrance and exit opening, upper and lower guide rollers within thechamber, about which the fabric may be trained, an acid compartment inthe chamber beneath the lower guide rollers, the upper portion of thechamber being inclined and having exterior longitudinal ribs, steamconduits arranged be-' tween the ribs, a steam coil within the acidchamber, means for supplying steam to the conduits and coil, a condensercoil exterlorly of the chamber, one end thereof having connection withan upper portion of the oxidizing chamber, a col- AH'RED xvasmcxa.

